Melody Plant

Another reality star thinks that just coz her show got big, she can get big too. ‘The Hills’ star Heidi Montag premiered her single ‘Body Language’ on Ryan Seacrest’s radio show on Thursday morning. Fans called in giving great reviews and even KIIS FM co-host Ellen K had herself calling Heidi the next Britney.The catch? Heidi’s fiancé Spencer Pratt raps on the single. Eww.

But guess what? The release was a mistake. An insider reveals that the record company leaked the track. As Spencer told People magazine, it’s not the single and that it was done as a joke. Actually Spencer, it’s just you that’s the joke.

Sugababes new single, ‘About You Now’ from their upcoming 5h Studio album. Released 24th September

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James Blunt album titled “All Lost Souls” due for release on September 17th.
I can’t wait to check out his songs!!!

Looks like some stars got busy before the summer and they are about to get busier after. The amazingly talented Juanes is coming out with a new album.

The Colombian singer’s ‘La Vida Es… Un Ratico’ album is set to be released on October 23 and the lead single ‘Me Enamora’ will be out on the radio by September 4. This album will be his first release since his last record ‘Mi Sangre’ was released in 2004. His last album moved 659,000 units in the US so let’s hope that it hasn’t been too long that people forgot about him already which would make his album tank.

Either way, welcome back Juanes.

THERE are the deliriously exciting parts of getting signed to a major record label — spreading the news, hobnobbing with superstar labelmates, planning an album with a household-name producer — and then, according to the singer-songwriter Chrisette Michele, there are the not-so-thrilling parts. For example, “I never knew I was fat until Def Jam signed me. I seriously had no idea,” said the 24-year-old at her home here last week. “But then I started doing interviews, and people would ask, ‘How’s it been dealing with your weight all these years?’ ” Fat, America has so many obese people that there is no count and therefore so many heart disease patients. But if a celeb or a model or singer has slightly extra pounds on him/her all these media guys just stare at them like they have never seen something like this ever before and jump on to discuss weight matters. The interviewer could be fat herself but since Michele is an upcoming star she cannot have asked the interviewer about her weight problems. How single minded, may be they nothing better to ask about.

Everyone is pretty much expecting Britney’s comeback to be a train wreck so let’s just forget about hers and focus on Celine Dion’s! Several insiders have leaked out that Celine is working on a new album.

Much like Madonna, Celine has worked with an interesting group of songwriters and producers for her album which would be released by November. The likes of Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics recorded a song with her called ‘Taking a Chance’. Celine has worked on 3 songs with former Evanescence member Ben Moody. The likes of R. Kelly, Timbaland and Ne-Yo are also said to have worked with her.

Madonna works hard and will no doubt get to play harder. She’s been making a new record with some of the best producers out there like Timbaland, Justin Timberlake and Pharrell Williams and her new album is said to be great but she is leaving her long-time home at Warner Bros. Records.

Don’t be sad for the pop icon though. The Queen of Pop is said to be negotiation with the music executives at Live Nation to sign a deal that would cover her touring, recording, merchandising and other stuff. The said deal is for something between $160 to $180 million.

Ever since the release of her latest album “My December” there have been rumors flying about Kelly Clarkson’s falling out with record mogul Clive Davis. It began when Clarkson wanted more control and freedom to write on her record. Davis didn’t agree with the loss of using hired star song writers. Around the same time Kelly announced the cancellation of her latest tour due to slow ticket sales. She has since spoken out about the issue saying that she considers everyone she works with family and families tend to fight. She adds that its respect and admiration that keeps them together. She says there is no bad blood between her and Davis and that she has nothing but respect for him. I don’t see why writing your own music is a bad idea. It’s strange to sell a manufactured product. I’d much rather see true art whether it’s good or bad.

Joni Mitchell, who had been largely retired from the music business since 2002, has joined Paul McCartney on the roster of Starbucks Entertainment’s Hear Music label. Mitchell’s new album, “Shine,” will be released September 25 through the coffee retailer’s stores as well as traditional outlets.

Mitchell angrily threatened to quit recording after the release of 2002’s “Travelogue,” but her work with Starbucks on a 2005 “Artists Choice” compilation helped encourage her to not throw in the towel just yet.

“Joni acknowledged back in 2005 that not only was she very, very impressed with our commitment to music and our customers’ love of music, but that really helped to re-energize her passion for music,” Starbucks Entertainment president Ken Lombard told Billboard.com “As we continue to have discussions with respect to this new CD, it is obvious to us that she’s back, in a big way.”

In fact, it was Mitchell who reached out to Starbucks when she was nearing completion on “Shine.” “Frankly, for Joni fans, this is the Joni they’ve been waiting for,” Lombard said. “This is true Joni — it is almost the return of her as a storyteller.”

“Shine” includes nine new songs as well as a new version of Mitchell’s evergreen, “Big Yellow Taxi.” The album is part of a series of new work from the singer/songwriter, including a ballet based on her music, “The Fiddle and the Drum,” and a visual art exhibit that opens in the fall in New York.

It’s a battle of the rap moguls! Kanye West is out for 50 Cent!

Well… not really. Kanye’s new album ‘Graduation’ has just been delayed in its release to September 11th. And yes, that is the same day that 50’s new record ‘Curtis’ will drop.

The two rappers have had a rivalry going for a while. Kanye actually made a pretty conniving move because he is most likely to outsell 50, thus giving him more points in their bout. Even if he doesn’t sell more albums, Kanye wouldn’t be humiliated because 50 is ‘expected’ to sell more.

50’s camp would most likely leak his album to push the release by about a week earlier just so it doesn’t drop the same day as Kanye’s.

Nashville-based, Miami-born Raul Malo has never been part of the country mainstream. Even when his seminal band the Mavericks was scaling the country airplay and sales charts in the early ’90s, he was on another plane.

Malo’s musical palette has included everything from Latin rhythms to rock to bluegrass to children’s music, which, depending upon your point of view, makes his new release either a natural progression or a complete left turn.

Malo’s interpretation of country classics, “After Hours,” out July 17, and “A Marshmallow World and Other Christmas Favorites,” another album of covers due later this year, will be released on New Door/Universal Music Enterprises.

The label is “primarily dedicated to producing new music from historically significant” Universal Music Group artists, according to the UMG Web site. (The Mavericks recorded for MCA Nashville in the ’90s.) Styx, Smokey Robinson, Joe Cocker and Nanci Griffith are among the acts that have released projects on the label.

“After Hours” includes noteworthy treatments of Eddy Arnold’s “Welcome to My World,” Hank Snow’s “(Now and Then There’s) A Fool Such As I” and the Ray Price-sung, Kris Kristofferson-penned “For the Good Times.” Buck Owens’ “Crying Time,” Hank Williams’ “Cold, Cold Heart” and “Take These Chains From My Heart,” and Roger Miller’s “Husbands and Wives” are also included.

Since the news of their reunion concert, one million people have gone to the official Spice Girls website to register for tickets for their reunion tour with very limited dates. If that wasn’t enough for the rest of the world to see that there are still some die hard Spice Girls fans out there, there’s more.

A group of well-organized fans have opened a MySpace page with details about the movement ‘Stop to the Top’. It’s an internet movement which aims to get the only Spice Girls single that never made it to number 1 to the top stop via internet downloading. ‘Stop’ stalled at number 2 before dropping gradually.

The campaign seems to be working though. The song has already made it to the Top 100 in iTunes.

Former American Idol contestant Katharine McPhee is featured on the cover of the August 2007 issue of Stuff magazine. In an interview, she talks about dating older men, her new album cover, being popular among males and settling down.

The 21-year old singer’s boyfriend is actually a 42-year old Broadway actor. She says that at her age, it was a good time to explore. At the same time, she gravitated towards the older men because “They’re just wiser, and they’re less about themselves and more about you.”

Her new album cover was made into a big deal due to her provocative pose. She’s been labeled as a slut by some but she doesn’t care and defends herself by saying that it was all just suggested and not completely showing skin. And even though some are seeing her as some sort of sex symbol, she’s pretty humble about it by saying that some people thought that she was cute instead of pretty.

When asked about settling down, she’s all mature and said that she’s always wanted to have children of her own. That’s sweet.

Music industry insiders all know that record sales are declining so it’s not news if an artist finds novel ways to make money out of the music. An insider even told the press the trick of the trade in which the artist needs to make the brand part of the song so that it slips down the throats of fans easily.

Fergie is cashing in on that trick and her appeal to the teenage girls of the world. The singer is reportedly set to make $4 million by teaming up with Candies clothing and accessory line on her next album. The brand name will be dropped in her songs and she will work with them on ad campaigns. She’s already started that by featuring several Candies clothing on her video for ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’.

It’s not really a matter of selling out. It’s a matter of business.

Draw another notch under the column ‘comebacks’, because Miss Nasty herself Janet Jackson is planning her latest.

Plans of a tour that was reportedly in the works but never materialized due to her last album ‘20 Y.O’ didn’t even cause a ripple in the music world. But now she’s moved on and is working on her latest project.

Miss Jackson is currently in Miami working on a new album. She will be in South Beach with L.A. Reid for the next three months recording her new album at the Circle House Studios.

We can only assume that since she’s working with Reid that she has signed to the his label, where he is the chairman, Island Def Jam. That would mean that she has left her home of Virgin Records after over a decade.

All we can do now is wait, hope and pray that this album would be leagues better than the last.

Toby Keith scored his third No.1 album on the U.S pop album charts Wednesday, although sales from his previous release were sharply down.
“Big Dog Daddy” sold 204,000 copies in the week ended June 17, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Keith’s 2006 album, “White Trash With Money” sold more at 330,000, but debuted at No. 2. His other chart-toppers were 2003’s “Shock’n Y’All” with 585,000 in its first week, and 2002’s “”Unleashed” with 338,300. The overall music industry has been in a sharp slide in that time, with most artists suffering sales declines.
Rapper Fabolous’s first album in three years followed at No. 2. “From Nothin’ to Somthin” sold 159,000 units. His last effort, “Real Talk” bowed at No. 6 with 179,000 in 2004; his previous charting best was 2003’s “Street Dreams” which peaked at No. 3.
Last week’s leader, R&B singer T-Pain’s “Epiphany” slid to No. 5 with a 52% sales hit, selling 82,000. Linkin Park’s “Minutes to Midnight” another former chart-topper, rose one to No. 6, also with 82,000. R&B singer Rihanna’s “Good Girl Gone Bad” dropped five to No. 7 with 81,000, a 50% drop in its second week.
DJ Khaled earned his first Billboard 200 top 10 spot with “We the Best” at No. 8. The set sold 79,000 copies; his 2006 release “Listennn: The Album”, started at No. 12 with 44,000.
The Traveling Wilburys’ self-titled Rhino anthology arrived at No. 9 with 78,000. The package includes the supergroup’s two original studio albums along with bonus tracks and a DVD. The collection debuted Sunday at No. 1 on the U.K. album chart.

Love don’t cost anything is something that Jennifer Lopez might have told us, but in the video for her next single, “Me Haces Falta” — from her Spanish-language debut album, Como Ama una Mujer — the singer’s character definitely learned that there’s a price to pay for a lover scorned. “[It's] basically about someone who is missing someone so much and has done something so wrong to the person that they know they can’t fix it,” Lopez explained last week from the Los Angeles set of the video. “So they just hate themselves right in that moment, they can’t stand [it], they regret everything that they did and they wish they could change things. It’s basically about missing somebody terribly. This is so true, when a person there around you we sometimes just don’t care for the relationship so much and when the same person is out of your life you are left fond memories.

Jermaine Dupri got away with singing on Mariah Carey’s albums, and nobody flinched. But the producer didn’t want to press his luck on the new Fabolous album, From Nothin’ to Somethin’, which dropped June 12. Dupri produced the track “Don’t Let Go,” which features T-Pain, but Fab told last week that the producer was really the first choice to croon on the chorus. “JD was actually on the hook, but he did the audio-tune to his voice,” Fab said of some studio tricks they used on the chorus. “I don’t think he wanted to really be on the hook though. We had to figure out who we could put on there. Who’s better than Mr. Audio-Tune, T-Pain? That’s Mr. Audio-Tune right now.” What ever the story is, why can’t producers just stick to their jobs and let the singers and rappers do theirs. It ain’t mean that if you are a music producers you can be a singer as well. If you think you have the talent and the voice minus the techno digital mixing then why not try it by producing a solo for yourself.

Kelly Clarkson, who rails against a former flame in her new song “Never Again”, says she’s never been in love.
“I love my friends and family”, the Grammy-winning singer and original “American Idol” tells Elle magazine in its July issue. “But I have never said the words ‘I love you’ to anyone in a romantic relationship. Ever.”
Clarkson, 25, doesn’t take romance lightly.
“I am very old-school, conservative in my thinking when it comes to relationships”, she says. “Love is something you work at. It doesn’t come easily. There are going to be bad days. You are going to have to work at loving someone when they are being an idiot.”
She adds: “People think they’re just going to meet the perfect guy. Don’t be ridiculous.”
Marriage and motherhood aren’t in the cards for Clarkson — not right now, anyway.
“My point of view is that I shouldn’t be a mother at all, because I’d be horrible”, she says. “I’m not willing to be that selfless.”
Her comments speak to the singer’s frankness, which makes Clarkson stand out from many of today’s publicist-protected pop stars. In recent weeks, Clarkson has made headlines for saying the media is exaggerating reports that she and music mogul Clive Davis clashed over her upcoming CD, “My December”, to be released by RCA Records, a unit of Sony BMG Music Entertainment.
It’s a sensitive subject.
“I’ve sold more than 15 million records worldwide, and still nobody listens to what I have to say. Because I’m 25 and a woman”, she says.
“I am a good singer, so I can’t possibly be a good writer”, she continues. “Women can’t possibly be good at two things. I haven’t lost my temper about it. It only drives me more. If your thing is to bring me down, cool. I’ll just work harder.”

As you can imagine the Beastie Boys never go out of fashion and as always they will have some summer live shows. The interesting fact is that it will all alternate with some instrumental sets and traditional hip-hop shows because of their new album “The Mix-Up”.
The Beastie Boys tour will start on the first of August in Philadelphia and will end in August 25 in Berkley. There is still no official date set for any of the instrumental performances planned. Mike D recently told Billboard:

“’We’ve got plenty more work ahead of us. ‘We kind of have a pretty broad list [of songs] to pick and choose from.”

The Beastie Boys will still be touring internationally in July and have shows planed in UK and Ireland at the beginning of September. So far these are the known dates and locations:

August 1 - Philadelphia, PA at Festival Pier
August 4 - Baltimore, MD at Virgin Festival
August 6 - Boston, MA at Bank of America Pavilion
August 8 - New York, NY at Central Park SummerStage
August 9 - Brooklyn, NY at McCarren Park Pool
August 16 - Morrison, CO at Red Rocks
August 23 - Santa Barbara, CA at County Bowl
August 25 - Berkeley, CA at Greek Theatre

Here you can find some Good music,
1. Dance Tonight
2. Ever Present Past
3. See Your Sunshine
4. Only Mama Knows
5. You Tell Me
6. Mr. Bellamy
7. Gratitude
8. Vintage Clothes
9. That Was Me
10. Feet In The Clouds
11. House of Wax
12. The End Of The End
13. Nod Your Head

The Police is also the name of a double-disc CD that is set to be released on June 11 by A&M Records. It will feature 30 tracks, the greatest hits signed The Police and also marks 30 years since the band released their first single in 1977 (“Fall Out”).
Police members Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland topped the charts in both radio and television during the late seventies and early eighties. They actually have 5 number 1 albums and have also released many top 10 singles in a quick succession. The Police received two Brits and 6 Grammy awards and it will be possible to see them back on stage. The band announced plans to reunite for a tour in Europe and USA. It starts in Vancouver, three days from now and will end on September 4th. Tickets are already sold out to some events and hopefully fans will enjoy the performances.

The latest album signed Deftones, “Saturday Night Wrist” is still enjoying a lot of success in the United States. It is a good time to prepare something new and this exactly what is happening as you read these lines. Chino Moreno, front man of the band, stated for Billboard that they are writing new songs in a backroom at the events. He said:

“We’re going in there and playing as five of us in the room with just our instruments, no other distractions. That’s how we started out, basically, when we first started the band — us in the garage, no ProTools or anything to get us ahead of ourselves. We’d just play things over and over again, until we remembered it — that’s the rawest way you can do it, and the best, I think.”

In case you did not know, Chino is also involved in another band, Team Sleep. He will be releasing new material with them as well somewhere at the beginning of 2008.

Madonna is to release a new song she has written for Live Earth.
The singer has penned ‘Hey You’ with super-producer Pharrell Williams and intends to bring the record out before the July 7 global warming charity concert at London’s new Wembley Stadium.
Madonna - who is rumoured to be headlining the event - will perform the song at the music extravaganza and hopes it will become the anthem of the day.
The ‘Hung Up’ singer has been working with Pharrell on her new album, which is due for release in November.
The hotly-anticipated LP will also include tracks Madonna has co-written with Timbaland, the producer who has masterminded hits for some of the world’s biggest pop stars, including Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado.
Other acts expected to play at the concert include the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Keane, the Beastie Boys, Black Eyed Peas, James Blunt and the Foo Fighters.
The London show is part of a worldwide network of concerts taking place on the same day in nine cities to raise awareness of environmental issues.
Live Earth founder Kevin Wall, the Worldwide Executive Producer of 2005’s Live 8 charity concerts, said: “We are thrilled to be adding a new leg of the Live Earth concert series in Istanbul. The goal of Live Earth is to engage a worldwide audience to take action against the climate crisis, and this concert in Istanbul will help to ensure that a truly global audience is reached.”
The other host cities are New York, Sydney, Shanghai, Tokyo, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro and Hamburg.